Asian University for Women and IKEA Foundation Celebrate Pathways for Promise

Asian University for Women and IKEA Foundation Celebrate Pathways for Promise – the World’s First Initiative for Ready-Made-Garments Workers to Attend University for Free.

From factories to degrees, Pathways for Promise seeks to break aspirational barriers for women employed in the ready-made-garments industry through access to higher education.

Leiden, Netherlands and Chittagong, Bangladesh – Media OutReach – February 6, 2017 – Asian University for Women (AUW) and IKEA Foundation announced today the first year’s success of their joint Pathways for Promise pilot program, the world’s first initiative to offer Ready-Made-Garments workers the opportunity to pursue a fully funded undergraduate degree. Out of hundreds of apparel worker applicants, in January 2016, 15 Pathways for Promise students embarked on their higher education journey on full scholarships from IKEA Foundation. Partnering with five factories in Bangladesh, AUW requires that the factories continue to pay selected students’ wages while they are enrolled. These women began their studies in the Pathways for Promise English, Math and Computer literacy immersion year, preparing them for rigorous studies at AUW’s liberal arts and sciences undergraduate program. As these women enter into their second year of studies they validate the program’s success, showing 100% retention.

Now Pathways for Promise students, former garments workers, study their English and math skills

Pathways for Promise students enjoying their studies

“It is an honour to witness the success of Pathways for Promise students. I commend their courage, commitment, and dedication to the opportunity that has changed the trajectory of their lives. Pathways for Promise is integral to realizing AUW’s mission to empower women through education and to cultivate women leaders. The IKEA Foundation is thrilled to have supported the pilot phase of this programme,” said Per Heggenes, CEO of the IKEA Foundation. “The Pathways for Promise model echoes the IKEA Foundation’s commitment to continually seek the most innovative programmes to help women who might not otherwise have opportunities to thrive. It is empowering these talented women to contribute to the sustainable human and economic development of Asia.”

In 2015, realizing the untapped pool of human potential among the more than three million female garments workers in Bangladesh, AUW set out looking for a key partnership to help launch Pathways for Promise. AUW introduced the concept to its longtime supporter, IKEA Foundation, which responded enthusiastically in light of the program’s alignment with the IKEA Foundation mission to empower women and girls. IKEA Foundation has provided full scholarships for over 200 women to study at AUW to date, amounting to more than $12 million in philanthropic support.

“We are so grateful to the IKEA Foundation for the support they have given AUW to pilot such an important program as Pathways for Promise,” said Kamal Ahmad, co-founder of AUW. “By focusing on talent that lay hidden among the millions of workers, AUW and IKEA Foundation have powerfully demonstrated how talents even in the most unsuspecting settings can be harnessed to great effect. Pathways for Promise forcefully demonstrates that no segment of any society has a monopoly on talent.”

Today, Pathways for Promise has more than one hundred students. The program directly reflects AUW’s Charter, which mandates that the University seek out talented Asian women in general, and in particular women from rural, poor or other disadvantaged backgrounds. AUW has leveraged the Pathways for Promise approach to reach high-potential women from other marginalized communities, such as the Rohingya ethnic minority or daughters of microfinance borrowers.

One Pathways for Promise student shares, “At the Pathways for Promise Talent Show hosted by AUW in October 2016, I performed a dance for my schoolmates. I danced with a bottle on my head, which is a symbol of luck. It is a sign of bad luck if the bottle falls and breaks, but when I danced in front of my classmates at AUW, the bottle on my head didn’t fall! In fact, I knew it wouldn’t fall, because I know I am so lucky to be in the Pathways for Promise program, and I believe I am going to have a very good four years here!”

The pilot cohort will graduate in 2021, taking leaderships positions in the fields of their choice, ranging from running their own apparel manufacturing site to working in public health throughout rural Bangladesh. To learn more about Pathways for Promise, visit asian-university.org/pathways.

About the Author

Paul Linus - Paul Linus is an eminent online journalist who has been writing news, features and editorials on different websites from across the world for about a decade.